Eleven years ago, I first made an observation that had been made by many readers of Isaiah who had come before- the phrase “high and lifted up” is used three times in Isaiah, and the contexts in which the phrase is found has significant implications as to the identity of the Servant of Isaiah 52-53. The most famous use of this phrase is found in Isaiah 52:13, leading into the narrative of the Servant of the LORD who is cut off from the living despite being guiltless before God, making atonement for the transgressors, and prolonging His days. Christians have naturally identified the Servant as Jesus, and Orthodox Jews (and unbelievers within a Christian tradition) have naturally contested this identification. Noting the intertextual links which tie this passage together with the whole book of Isaiah (and the entirety of the canon) help the interpreter come to a more objective assessment of the evidence. Today, I wish to explore some of that evidence pertaining to this phrase, drawing some conclusions about what it implies about the identity of the Servant and the character of His work. In context, here is the phrase in Isaiah 52:13:
“Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind [or “children of Adam”- SH]— so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.” (Isaiah 52:13–15, ESV)
The other two texts containing this phrase are found in Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 57:
“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”” (Isaiah 6:1–3, ESV)
“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made.” (Isaiah 57:15–16, ESV)
There is an obvious point to make here, and one that has been widely noted: the phrase “high and lifted up” used in Isaiah 52:13 is only used in two other contexts, and in both contexts the referent is unambiguous- the God of Israel. Naturally, this fits neatly into the Christian confession of Israel’s Messiah as the embodiment of Israel’s God, the one in whom the God of Israel draws as near to His people as it is ontologically possible to draw near. Upon first noting this, readers are often struck by the seamlessness in which Christian theology appears to be threaded into the text of the Hebrew Bible- no matter how often we might confess faith in the Old Testament as “our book” and “about Christ”, without a robust habit and pattern of actually reading the Old Testament in this way, this confession will merely conceal confusion. Moreover, there is a truth claim here: while one can differentiate different ways in which the Old Testament could be “about” Jesus, if it is not about Him in a way which implies that traditional Judaism is genuinely missing the keystone of Israel’s Scriptures, one isn’t saying anything worth investigating and we would all be better spending our time on other pursuits.
We see the way in which the christology of Isaiah seems to have shaped the apostles in texts like Philippians 2:
“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:8–11, ESV)
Here St. Paul draws upon the narrative arc of Isaiah 40-55 to elucidate the identity of Jesus and its implications for the whole church. It is often noted by critics that the “Servant” in Isaiah is identified with the whole of God’s people (Isaiah 42:1-4, 42:18-21, 49:1-6), but such critics fail to note that there is a story of transfiguration told in these passages which swings around Isaiah 49-53. Israel’s numbers are whittled down and reduced through a series of judgments until the destiny of Israel falls upon the singular “Servant of the LORD” who fulfills the calling of the nation, healing the barrenness of Zion. Note the progression in the following texts:
“The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: ‘The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.’ Then you will say in your heart: ‘Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?’ ” Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.” (Isaiah 49:20–22, ESV)
“Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah 53:10, ESV)
““Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.” (Isaiah 54:1, ESV)
It is evident here that the “barren one” is the people of God who has become deprived of life in their exile. Note that the period of the redemption from exile is identified in the Pentateuch as the “latter days” (Deuteronomy 4:30) which is also identified as the era in which the messianic age dawns (Genesis 49:1, 49:8-12). The “seed” which the Servant “sees” are thus naturally the seed that procreates through the redeemed Zion. Yet this raises a question: in Isaiah 40-55, it is God who is the Bridegroom of Israel. Observe in the aforementioned texts that the redeemed people of Israel are described as children of Zion who is married. Zion is thus both mother and bride. She is mother when she is described as the nursery of God’s people, bride when she is described as God’s people. With this in mind, take note of this text:
“Thus says the Lord: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away. Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.” (Isaiah 50:1–2, ESV)
The issue at stake is that Zion- the mother-to-be of the redeemed nation- is barren. To rectify this, God as Divine Bridegroom must marry Zion and bring forth seed. Indeed, this is how Isaiah draws to its conclusion:
“Thus says the Lord: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all. I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of my mountains; my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there.” (Isaiah 65:8–9, ESV)
Note also how this language recalls the language of the Servant in Isaiah 40-55: the Servant in Isaiah 42:1 is “my Servant…my chosen.” Likewise here we read that God will bring forth plural “servants” and “chosen ones.” A father brings forth children in his own likeness. What we have seen thusfar is that Zion- whose Bridegroom is God- is married to the Servant. The initial textual clue that the Servant is divine has been vindicated by observation of the narrative role that He takes in Isaiah. Marriage is a relationship in which the parties are not fungible! If God is the Bridegroom to Zion, then the Servant cannot be a second Bridegroom. The Servant is God in His wedding garments- and thus we meet Christ the Bridegroom in our iconography- wounded and bleeding for His people. It is in His crucifixion that God makes Himself one flesh with the Children of Adam, and in His resurrection that God raises the Children of Adam from the dead to live “not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
When God walks in the garden with Adam and Eve, is that Jesus in a human body?